Biden Urges Passage of Privacy, Antitrust Bills Aimed at 'Big Tech'

Social media companies should be held accountable for the “experiment they are running on our children for profit,” he said. Biden urged Congress to pass legislation to “strengthen antitrust enforcement and prevent big online platforms from giving their own products an unfair advantage.” The first step in protecting children’s privacy is to pass comprehensive legislation that sets a national privacy standard, said House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.: “If President Biden truly wants to promote Big Tech transparency and accountability, protect our kids, and strengthen privacy protections for Americans, he should join Energy and Commerce's bipartisan efforts to enact comprehensive data privacy legislation.” Ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he's ready to work across the aisle on privacy negotiations. Biden urged Congress to pass a Junk Fee Prevention Act that will “make cable, internet and cellphone companies stop charging you up to $200 or more when you decide to switch to another provider. We’ll cap service fees on tickets to concerts and sporting events and make companies disclose all fees upfront.” Biden touted Congress’ success in enacting the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included $65 billion for connectivity, and the Chips and Science Act. “America used to make nearly 40% of the world’s chips,” but “in the last few decades, we lost our edge and we’re down to producing only 10%,” he said. “We all saw what happened during the pandemic when chip factories overseas shut down.” Car “prices went up,” as “did everything from refrigerators to cellphones,” Biden said: “We can never let that happen again.”